How should we study ancient stone monuments? In the past, great ingenuity has been expended on cataloguing them according to ever more intricate typologies. Now a survey of Neolithic monuments in Pembrokeshire is applying simpler classifications and focusing on what these edifices meant to the communities that raised them. The results raise questions about how efforts to clear the first farming land were commemorated, and whether we can detect a prehistoric desire to keep up with the neighbours.

At Blick Mead, it is understanding the meaning of journeys that is under the spotlight. This remarkable Mesolithic meeting place was established tantalisingly close to the later site of Stonehenge. An unprecedented sequence of radiocarbon dates indicates activity from the 8th to the 4th millennium BC, while a dog tooth suggests that visitors may have been drawn from as far afield as the Vale of York.

The First World War brought more unwelcome visitors to the British coast. Enemy submarines took a terrible toll on shipping, while aircraft offered new ways to strengthen or evade coastal defences. We take a look at a project recording the eroding relics of a forgotten frontline before they are lost forever.

Time has long since obliterated any markers tracing out the territory of the Roman client king Cogidubnus – or so it would seem. An attempt to trace the borders of his domain using Long-Distance Alignments has yielded some surprising results.

Finally, we salute the pioneering work undertaken by female archaeologists.

Matt Symonds

IN THIS ISSUE:

FEATURES

BLICK MEAD

Exploring the ‘first place’ in the Stonehenge landscapeOngoing excavations at Blick Mead have unearthed an impressive array of evidence of the site’s use in the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods. What can the latest finds from this ancient spring tell us about the origins of a ritual landscape?

CITiZAN GOES TO WAR

Britain’s coastal frontline: 1914-1918
What traces of the First World War are there on Britain’s shores? We explore the coastal archaeology of a forgotten frontline.

Rethinking the stones of Neolithic Pembrokeshire
Should archaeologists start thinking less about monument typologies to understand how people viewed rocks and the landscape in the past? We take a look at new approaches to the meanings of the stones of Neolithic Pembrokeshire.

TIBERIUS CLAUDIUS COGIDUBNUS

Defining the dominions of the Great King
We examine how the Long-Distance Alignments of Roman roads are shaping our knowledge of the borders marking out the territory of the ‘Great King of the Britons’, client king Cogidubnus.

TROWELBLAZERS

Raising our trowels to pioneering women archaeologists
A new touring exhibition celebrating women archaeologists past and present is about to open. Who were some of the earlier female figures who made an impact on the subject, and how were they connected?